"That," spoke Captain Tom, softly, "will have to be decided after we get there. But swim over there we must, since there isn"t anything on this island that even looks like a boat. See here, Joe, you and Hank trot up to the bungalow and tell Mr. Seaton what we"ve seen. The "Restless" is at anchor in the cove yonder. There are plenty of logs up at the bungalow. Come back with one big enough to buoy us up in the water, yet not so big but what we can steer it while swimming. And bring with it a few lengths of that quarter-inch cord from the dynamo room. Don"t be too long, will you, fellows?"
After Joe and Hank had departed, Tom Halstead watched the light shining behind the four distant ports until it disappeared. Then he looked at the waves long and wonderingly.
"It"s a big chance to take. I don"t know whether we can ever get out there in a sea like this," he muttered. "Yet, what wouldn"t I do to get control of our own boat again? Our own boat--the good old "Restless"! Joe isn"t saying much of anything; he never does, but I know how he feels over the stealing of the boat and the chance that bunglers may leave her on the rocks somewhere along this coast!"
A few minutes pa.s.sed. Then the young skipper heard hurrying footsteps.
Joe and Hank hove into sight out of the deep gloom, bearing an eight-foot log on their shoulders.
"Good enough," nodded Halstead, eyeing the log approvingly. "Now, wade into the water with it, and let"s see whether it will buoy us all up at need."
All three waded out with the log, until they were in nearly up to their shoulders.
"Now, hang to it, and see if it will hold us up," commanded Captain Tom Halstead.
The log bore them up, but the crest of a big wave, rolling in, hurled them back upon the beach. Tom dragged the log up onto dry ground.
"Now, first of all, let"s lash our clubs to the log," suggested the young skipper. This was soon accomplished. Then each of the Motor Boat Club boys made a medium length of the cord fast around his chest, under the arm-pits.
"The next trick," proposed Halstead, "is to make the other end fast to the log, allowing just length enough so that you can swim well clear of the log itself, and yet be able to haul yourselves back to the log in case you find your strength giving out."
This took some calculation, but at last the three motor boat boys decided that eight feet of line was the proper length. This decided, and accomplished, they carried the log down into the water, and pushed resolutely off into the blackness.
Even Tom Halstead, who allowed himself few doubts, little believed that they could accomplish this long, dangerous swimming cruise over a rough sea.
CHAPTER V
TOM MATCHES ONE TRICK WITH ANOTHER
At the outset Joe swam at the rear, frequently giving a light push to send the log riding ahead. Tom and Hank swam on either side, half-towing the timber that was to be their buoy when needed.
All three, reared at the edge of salt water, as they had been, were strong, splendid swimmers. This night, however, with the rough waves, the feat was especially dangerous.
"Swim the way a fellow does when he knows he"s really _got_ to," was the young skipper"s terse advice as they started.
It became a contest of endurance. Tom and Joe, the two Maine boys, were doggedly determined to reach their boat or perish in the attempt.
Hank b.u.t.ts, the Long Island boy, though perhaps possessing less fine courage than either of his comrades, had a rough way of treating danger as a joke. This may have been a pretense, yet in times of peril it pa.s.sed well enough for grit.
Any one of the three could have swum a mile readily on a lightly rolling sea, but to-night the feat was a vastly sterner one. Hank was the first to give out, after going a little more than an eighth of the distance. He swam to the log, throwing his right arm over it and holding on while the two Maine boys pushed and towed it. Finally, when young b.u.t.ts had broken away to swim, Joe closed in, holding to the log for a while. At last it came even doughty Tom Halstead"s turn to seek this aid to buoyancy.
Nor had they covered half the distance, in all, when all three found themselves obliged to hold to the log, as it rolled and plunged, riding the waves. Worst of all, despite their exertions, all three now found their teeth chattering.
"Say, it begins to look like a crazy undertaking," declared Hank, with blunt candor. "Can we possibly make it?"
"We"ve got to," retorted Tom Halstead, his will power unshaken.
"I don"t see the light over there any more," observed Hank, speaking the words in jerks of one syllable, so intense was the shaking of his jaws.
"Maybe the boat isn"t over yonder any longer," admitted Captain Tom, "but we"ve got to chance it. And say, we"d better shove off and try to swim again, to warm ourselves up. We"re in danger of shaking ourselves plum to pieces."
There was another great peril, on which none of them had calculated well enough before starting. When they were clear of the log, swimming, it pitched so on the tops of the waves that it was likely, at any instant, to drive against the head of one of the swimmers and crack his skull.
"If we had known all this before we started----" began Hank, the next time the three swimmers were driven to cling, briefly, to their movable buoy.
"We"d have started just the same," retorted Tom, as stiffly as his chattering teeth would let him speak.
"Humph!" muttered Hank, unbelievingly. "It"s a fool"s dream, this kind of a swim."
"It"s less work to go ahead than to turn back, now," broke in Joe, his teeth accompanying his words with the clatter of castanets.
"No; the wind and tide would be with us going back," objected b.u.t.ts.
"We could almost drift back."
"And die of chills on the way," contended Tom, doggedly. "No, sir!
We"ve got to go ahead. I"m swimming to the tune of thoughts of the galley fire aboard the "Restless"!"
"Br-r-r!" shook Hank, as the three cast loose from the log once more and struck out, panting, yet too cold to stay idle any longer.
It was tantalizing enough. The longer they swam, the more the boys began to believe that the island they sought was retreating from before them. Hank was almost certain they were moving in a circle, but Halstead, with a keen sense of location, insisted that they were going straight, even if very slowly, to the nameless island.
"I see it," breathed the young skipper, exultantly, at last.
"What--the island?" bellowed Hank b.u.t.ts.
"No; but I"d swear I saw the "Restless" the last time we rode a high wave," Halstead shouted back.
Ten minutes afterwards all three of the Motor Boat Club boys caught occasional glimpses of something dark and vague that they believed to be the hull of their yacht. The belief gave them renewed courage. Even Hank no longer had any desire to turn back. His whole thought centered on the lively times that were likely to begin when they tried to regain control of their boat from whomever had stolen it.
Then, bit by bit the trio worked their log buoy into the cove. Once they were inside, the water was very much smoother. Resting a few moments for breath, they then made a last dash forward, to get alongside.
In this smoother, more shallow water, the "Restless" rode securely at anchor. As they swam closer, the boys found that they could discover no human presence on the decks. Had the boat-stealers gone ash.o.r.e on the nameless island? If so, it would be a comparatively easy matter to get aboard and cut out of the cove with their own craft.
Close up alongside they went. Tom Halstead was the first to be able to reach up at the hull and draw himself up over the side. Then, with his pocket-knife, as he lay at the rail of the "Restless," the young skipper slashed the cord that still held him bound to the log.
Reaching over, he pa.s.sed the knife to Hank. In utter silence the Long Island boy cut the clubs free, and pa.s.sed them up. Next Hank drew himself aboard, after pa.s.sing the jackknife to Joe Dawson.
Just a little later all three of the Motor Boat Club boys found themselves standing on the deck, each grasping his own firewood weapon. They made no noise, for they knew not who, or how many others might be on board below. If they had a desperate gang of thieves to contend with, then their troubles had not yet even begun!
Joe and Hank stood where they were, shaking as though in the last ditch of ague, while Halstead went forward, with the soft tread of a cat, to peer down into the motor room, the hatchway of which stood open.
"Wonder if there"s anyone down there, asleep, or playing possum?"
thought the young skipper as he peered into the blackness and listened. No sound of any kind came up to him. At last, a short step at a time, Halstead descended into the motor room, groping cautiously about. Finally, he became confident enough to feel in the galley match-box, extract a match and light it. The tiny flame showed him that the motor room was empty of human presence other than his own.
"No one down forward," he reported, in a shaking whisper, when he rejoined his chilled companions on deck.
"I believe there are plenty of folks in the cabin, though," reported Joe. "They"ve drawn the port-hole and transom curtains, but they"ve got a hidden light down there, and I can hear voices."